I hope you guys are right, but I don't know man. Maybe it's just the pessimist and worry wart in me when it comes to Gilles, but did you guys see this Jerzy guy play this week? He is a beast. Huge serve and huge ground strokes, especially off of the forehand side. He was just bossing Tipsy around all over the place and eating up his serve like it was nothing and Tipsy serves way bigger than Gilles does. He looked untouchable.

And like lalaland said, Murray and Gilles play very similar games and Jerzy bossed Murray around too. He's young, powerful and has no fear because he's just starting and already knows he has nothing to lose here so he's just swinging for the fences and going all out which is a dangerous combination.

I want Gilles to win very badly, but I know just how much at risk he will be against this guy tomorrow. On paper it would seem and look like the ideal match up for any Simon fan to want for a semifinal of a masters 1000, but if you saw any of this Jerzy guy play this week, you know it will easily end up being the toughest match up Gilles will face all week. I hope i'm wrong, but I just got a bad feeling based on what I saw of Jerzy today and the roll he's been on all week. It may be destiny for him this week.

I've seen Jerzy play many times before this week, and it's true, he's never played this well. There's got to be some fear from our guy, but not much.

These 'ballbashers' really struggle against Gillou as he hits quite a flat ball, and soaks up pace and pressure very well.

I suppose, in a way, there's nothing Gillou would be able to do of Janowicz keeps serving at 230km/h and taking wild swings at second servers and crucially landing them. However I think the crowd will be a big factor here, and Janowicz can't keep this level up. It is bound to drop.

I'm confident for Simon, but completely acknowledge that there's a small chance he'll be blasted into oblivion.

I can't really be that mad, when a guy serves like that there's not much you can do. It really is just his week, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him win the finals as well. SF's at masters are rare, especially when you beat a top 10 player like Berdych so overall a good week, but it is disappointing.

Bit sad that Gilles can't get use of this great opportunity. But considering what's been going on this season, a SF showing in a ATP1000 is rather good. And he got back to Top 16, will have a good enough seeding comes AO.

Janowicz literally pushing Gilles' head to hug him at the net . Gilles' such a small guy when he stands next to giant.

Well, I wish I could say i'm surprised. It was amazing how hopeless it all felt for Gilles right from the start. I think Jerzy is going to take the whole thing. There's really no weakness in his game. He just lacks big match experience but he's getting that right now in a hurry and he's too young and green right now to be afraid of the moment.

There was really just nothing that Gilles could do. No break point chances and under too much pressure every service game because of this kid's effortless power and pretty damn good movement for his size. He's basically everything that Karlovic isn't. I look at it like this. Karlovic was the early prototype, Isner was the revised model, and Jerzy is the end result of the evolution of a big man in tennis. The perfect balance of power, movement and shot selection.

It was a great effort and run for Gilles. Nothing for him to hang his head about. It just hurts because who knows if he'll ever have an opportunity to ever get to a masters final again. Regardless, focusing on the positives to come out of this are a great finish to the year and good for his ranking too.

He was having more in road in his SF against Rafa on clay in MC than he is today. That's said a lot about the quality of Janowicz today. And when a big server is having his day, Gilles is not v. good at handling them, it put too much pressure on his own serves when he's not able to break the opponent. And Janowicz is really quite unbelievably good in this tournament, I think his win came no surprise to anyone who watched him beat Kohli/Cilic/Murray/Tipsy this week. He could very well win the whole thing tomorrow.

And in that article on L'Equipe Soulage posted, the journalist was calling Gilles' serve in QF "girl serve" bcos it's so slow, they suspected that the neck is still bothering him. I thought his body looks stiff in that QF, but he's so calm and relax and played such a great match regardless. Like I said before, Gilles' tennis is good enough to beat a lot of ppl when he is physically up to it. He said in itw that he didn't expect to have to deal with these physical issues for the rest of his life, which I take that he'll have a strategy in place to make sure he doesn't need to deal with it in a constant basis. Maybe it's wishful thinking, I just think he will figure it out eventually how to get himself healthy for a longer stretch in the season.

But anyway, if this is not a SF in a master with no Top 4 remaining, then maybe it won't be that upsetting. Remember just last week when he lost in Valencia, we were all so depressed and wondered if Gilles will ever be good again? He was great for 3 matches this week, very offensive against Baggy, ok against Hanescu but he doesn't need to be amazing to beat him anyway, and played a great match with his means against Berdych (and didn't choke when he was down 0-40 serving for the match, I was most impressed by what he did to serve that game out). Anyway, there's really a lot to cheer about this week.

I know it's probably very hard to be happy after a loss, but I'm tired of being upset after every loss, so I just wanna say something upbeat for a change . I was not too put-off by the loss in Valencia last week, and after this week, I'm rather full of hope for the next season. If he can get a hold of his health issues, I don't see why he can't get himself back to the top. I'm very hopeful.

Allez Gilles, you did great considering. Have a great off-season playing with the kid and hang out with the family. Come back fresh and healthy next year to do something great. Looking forward to seeing you next season.

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Yesterday reading Eurosports' article, it said he has a lot of relatives watching him play in Bercy, and Gilles mentioned that his son said he wants to see Papa playing tennis... so sweet.

Simon should be pleased that he wasn't humiliated unlike the last two years in which he was bageled by Soderling and Monaco.

yes, if his goal in this match is to not be blown away by the opponent, then he reached it with flying color .
He probably had this goal in USO R3, he was rather relieved that he got decent scoreline , but that's another story.